Funferal

Broadcasting Bill response

A new Broadcasting Bill is currently being considered in Ireland, and a number of issues bear comment:

• The Oireachtas committee dealing with the Bill mandated an internet-based consulatation. Unfortunately, I was travelling when I became aware of the process, and though I registered, I wasn’t able to set aside time to take part in the actual consultation. Interesting, though, to see the Irish parliamentary system seek to harness the vaunted power of the internet.
• Stephen Price got it right in the Sunday Business Post (17 September) when he noted that the Bill, while attemptign to rein in RTÉ’s influence on the commercial market, does nothing to moderate TV3’s commercial and bottom-line impulses in the same market
• The Price article also questions the proposed role of the new Authority in providing training, claiming that there is no shortage of places for those wishing to work in the industry in Ireland. “Given that Irish Universities turn out roughly the same number of media graduates as there are jobs in Ireland, it is difficult to imagine what skills shortages the government has in mind.” A reasonable point, it must be admitted (as long as the role of universities is to serve the market….) and one is pressed to figure out the point of this section, unless it’s to provide subventions for the Irish-language courses at NUI, Galway – in which case, why not be clear about the issue?